Monday, October 10, 2005

Serbian failure to name team for Kosovo talks criticized

Text of report in English by Belgrade-based Radio B92 text website on 10 October

Belgrade, Pristina, 10 October: With the end of the year approaching, Serbia still has no precise Kosovo platform and has yet to announce who will be heading its delegation for status discussion.

The Serbian government claims that the process of integrating into the European Union will go hand in hand with the discussions for the future status of Kosovo, and that one will not be sacrificed for the sake of the other.

Serbian presidential advisor Leon Kojen said that Serbia's senior officials have been discussing a set of documents which apparently make up the basis for the Serbian platform for the Kosovo talks.

"These documents create the foundation for implementing some parts and the sharpening of other parts which will formulate the all-encompassing platform for the talks. In this sense, we are prepared for the discussions," Kojen said.

The Albanian delegation has already held its first meeting, while Belgrade has yet to name its team of negotiators. Kojen said that, according to the current constitution, Serbian President Boris Tadic has the right to appoint the delegation, as he has full authority for foreign political issues, but that the negotiation team will be based on an agreement between all of Serbia's political parties. However, he mentioned that communication between the president and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica is generally poor.

"There has been no cooperation between the two for some time now, communication is very sporadic and usually involves discussion of who would be able to bring the level of communication between the offices of the president and the prime minister up to par once again. If this problem is not resolved through talks shortly, I think that it will have to be solved through force and pressure," Kojen said.

Former Kosovo Coordination Centre president, Nebojsa Covic, said that if Belgrade does not take these discussions seriously, conditional independence will be granted for Kosovo.

"Belgrade must come out with clear and concrete positions on the issues of sovereignty, territorial integrity, what the minimum is and what the maximum is, and all of this must be represented through the discussion team which Belgrade must form. The team must be made up of people who are very deeply familiar with the problems, Belgrade must be prepared for the talks and not reject the discussions," Covic said.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

less then 4% of kosovar popullation will not determain how independent kosova will be!! 96% of the 2.4 million are determained at all costs to get their freedom, even if its war..so serbs have to live with it, even if they have to bow down to a two headed eagle!!! Sorry guys Tito is dead, kosova for kosovars serbia for serbs..pick or be picked